Greg Morrow on the drums applauds the crowd before the band starts. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band at DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkson, Mich. on June 6, 2019.
(Robin Buckson / Detroit News) Robin Buckson, Detroit News

One tweak to the set was the addition of “The Famous Final Scene” to the second encore. No reason, as far as band members knew. Seger just added it, and it went over well.

It was a nice touch to run photos on the big screen of friends and inspirations who had died in recent years such as Aretha Franklin, Glenn Frey, Prince, Gregg Allman, Chuck Berry and B.B. King, while Seger sang Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young.”

With Seger, 74, in such good trim, his voice deeper but still strong, why say it's the last tour? Since he's the bard of Michigan summer (certainly more than Eddie Money), he should do a residency at DTE every year, and have the world come to him. Or he could play smaller dates. It would be nice to see him meander a bit in his catalog for a show at the Fox, say.

Bob Seger belts out a classic.(Photo: Robin Buckson, Detroit News)

Seger has a particular knack for expressing the melancholy within joy, and the joy within melancholy. Maybe it's an Irish thing, but he smells fall in the air on the sunniest summer day, and sings wistfully about things going on "out past the cornfields where the woods get heavy,” things we know, here in Michigan.

We can hope. Meanwhile, we’ve got tonight — and Saturday, and Wednesday and ...